Third boycott protest held in Atlanta

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 December 2009, 03:30 GMT]Tamil activists in Atlanta held a protest at the North Point Mall in the Atlanta's suburb of Alpharetta Saturday, urging ethical consumers to stop buying "made in Sri Lanka" products, especially the garments, for the 3rd time since this campaign started in September, an attendee to the protest said. North Point Mall is a super-regional shopping mall serving affluent part of the metropolitan Atlanta, according to the protesters.

Protesters held placards at the entrance to the mall, and handed out boycott leaflets to the vehicles that stopped at the nearby traffic light.

"This is a human rights campaign against the Sri Lanka government for its human rights violation," the distributed leaflet said.

"While the boycott campaign for the oppressed Tamils in the north-east of srilanka would be a long drawn out campaign, we do not doubt the economic impact their campaign would have on Sri Lanka," one of the protest organizers said. "The blood bath in May, when more than 20,000 innocent civilians were slaughtered by Sri Lanka's military offensive, have left us with no other option except to protest till the Tamils in Sri Lanka see a just peace to their political aspirations," he added.

The organizers said they were co-ordinating with similar campaigns in other states, and are planning to unify the protest message to the shoppers for maximum impact.